Presently used metallic bioimplants are non-degradable and remain permanently inside the body necessitating secondary surgery for removal. To overcome such problems, biodegradable (BD) metallic implants (Fe-Mn, Mg, Zn) are being developed. Mg based alloys are recently being commercialized for dental, trauma and orthopaedic applications. However, their usage is not extended to the applications which require longer period due to higher degradation rates and hydrogen evolution. These can be reduced by incorporating fine grain structure and coatings. Fe-Mn based alloys are recently gaining importance due to high specific strength and low cost. The challenge with Fe-Mn based alloys is lower degradation rates which can be addressed by miniaturizing. Presently, these BD implants are being developed by conventional techniques. Additive manufacturing (AM) is an advanced manufacturing technique that makes complex and custom made components with fine grained structure, controlled porosity and degradation rates. In addition, the challenges in fabrication of Mg based implants due to issues with forming and machinability can be overcome by AM. The reported studies on AM are preliminary. The use of soft tissue anchors (STA) as implants is projected to increase due to wider usage for fixing sports injuries as well as repairing wear and tear of tendons, ligaments and cartilage. This study envisages design of STAs, development of Mg and Fe-Mn alloy powders with suitable composition and demonstration of AM process for the manufacture of prototypes. It also involves characterization (microstructural, mechanical and biological) of AM built and surface modified coupons as well as components.
Light weight high performance components such as motor casing and battery enclosures require the assembly of multiple parts with complex geometry for the efficient design of electric vehicles. Design innovation to reduce the part counts without compromising the desired structural, thermal and mechanical performances is needed but limited by the ability of the traditional processes. The recourse is to produce parts with an innovative design by printing additional features on a cast or extruded part using Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) thereby reducing part counts and the need for elaborate assembly processes. WAAM is a novel technique and involves rapid melting, deposition and solidification of materials to build geometric features layer by layer on a base. An understanding and precise control of the WAAM process are needed to produce a defect free, structurally sound and dimensionally consistent component.
The project aims at WAAM based printing of three dimensional features on cast / extruded aluminium alloy parts to enhance their functionality. The work packages include the development of in-situ monitoring and process control systems, computer-based models to predict the structure, property, residual stress and distortion and defect generation and printing of parts with enhanced features as demonstrators. These demonstrators will be put under standard tests to check their performances for further commercialization and mass production. The tasks will be carried out by all the partners in a systematic manner to ensure the reproducibility of the developed technology and completion of the overall targets.
ReadCommercially available Total Mandibular Joint (TMJ) replacement implants do not fit properly in Indian patients. Hence, patient specific anatomical TMJ implants seem to be a better alternative than the existing stock implants. Additionally, these commercial implants lack the hierarchical bony architecture. Therefore, it is hypothesized that an anatomical TMJ implant with additively manufactured bio-inspired functional lattice structures will have improved biomechanical performance. The aim of the manufacturing investigations are to specifically control the process parameters for powder bed fusion with a laser beam (PBF- LB) to adjust the morphology and topography of lattice structures, cryogenic cutting of the final contour and select and optimize the finishing processes such as stream finishing, centrifugal disc finishing or electropolishing.
The Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing process is suitable for tool making due to the small batch size and the ability to produce curved cooling channels that are not conventionally possible. When processing standard steel for hot work and plastic moulding tools H13 with LPBF, cracking must be prevented by using high preheating temperatures or by significantly limiting part size. To overcome these limitations, a modified hot work tool steel is being developed that can be processed at preheating temperatures of 200°C or less to enable industrial use. For efficient parameter selection, software for LPBF process development will be adapted and used. For a high surface quality of the functional outer surface and the complex cooling channels, polishing with a polymer rheological abrasive in a semisolid to liquid medium is used. The process chain to produce a tool is demonstrated and the tool is implemented in a plant environment.
The powder-feed metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) systems can realize the Functionally Graded Materials (FGMs) but remain inefficient and challenging to control the localized material composition. Therefore, this project proposes a novel approach, "Multi-axis multi-material wire arc additive manufacturing (MAMM-WAAM)," to efficiently fabricate large-scale metallic objects of FGMs. The proposed system will be a robot cell consisting of two multi-wire plasma welding torches attached to two 6-axis Robotic Arms mounted on the curved tracks. This system will produce large-scale FGMs objects of size up to 2m×2m×1m. Also, a Computer-Aided Process Planning (CAPP) software will be developed for efficiently operating the proposed system. New algorithms for (i) representing FGMs CAD models, (ii) build strategies, (iii) volumetric simulation, and (iv) collision detection will be developed for this CAPP software. The system will demonstrate its capabilities through industrial case studies.
Urban agriculture is integral part of sustainable city development, providing ecosystem services like air quality regulation, cooling, an appealing appearance and food production. Urban agriculture moved as trend into urban environments in form of vertical farming, rooftop and community gardening. Besides space, soil as cultivation substrate is scarce. Textile is light-weight and adaptive compared to other substrates and thus very suitable for soilless urban cultivation systems. The proposed project aims at the development of a re-useable textile cultivation substrate following a plant performance based approach. In addition to plant and system specific properties, the dimensional stability of the textile will be taken into account during the development to allow for re-usability of the substrate through cleaning. Thermo-mechanical and a biological cleaning process will be developed and evaluated. Subsequently, existing urban farming systems will be technically adapted to the textile substrate to improve resource-use efficiency and include an appropriate substrate cleaning process. In combination with a market analysis and target group segmentation (community gardening; urban farming for self-sufficiency; professional indoor, greenhouse and vertical farming) the value proposition and the financial feasibility will be translated into novel business models to support the market growth of urban farming. Circular, leight-weight and resource-efficient urban farming with re-usable substrate may inspires urban inhabitants, triggers sustainable consumer behavior and leads to a societal transition towards bioeconomy.
One of the challenges in cultivation in a hydroponic system with closed irrigation system is the optimized nutrient regulation due to inaccurate information of composition, although many researchers describe the determination of concentration of individual ions in solution as the key information for optimized operation. Current practice is the determination of conductivity, pH, redox potential and temperature. The consequence is the limited possibility to adjust nutrients to the needs of individual crops to avoid deficiency or eutrophication. The operators therefore periodically drain and replace the nutrient solutions.
The aim of the project is to develop an on-site multi-ion monitoring system for automated on-line control of nutrient input in vertical hydroculture systems with closed circulation systems based on feedback-controlled supply of nutrients. The monitoring system enables the effective use of nutrients for optimal plant growth by targeted regeneration of nutrient solution and thus contributes to a reduction in water pollution due to the premature nutrient disposal into the environment. Nutrient monitoring is based on direct potentiometric determination of relevant ions using ion-selective sensors. The choice of ions is characteristic of the growth of five crops selected. The sensors are integrated into a microfluidic system, which enables automated sample collection and adjustment of the measurement matrix. Calibration, data acquisition/processing are carried out using "machine learning" algorithms developed in the project to compensate for non-linear effects due to ion interference/cross-sensitivity and electrode/temperature drift. Prototypes will be provided to end users in India for beta testing.
ReadIndoor Vertical farming can make an important contribution to feed the growing global population (estimated to be 9.6 bn by 2050) especially in regions where the climatic conditions have significant restrictions on crop production. In Indoor farming the crops are cultivated in vertical stacked layers with the help of soilless, hydroponic or aeroponic growing system. Vertical farms can be established in towns, cities, desert and degraded lands for growing vegetables and fruits with a high economically and nutritious value inside protected structures with precision agricultural methods [Kalantari et al, 2017] It is a highly efficient system compared with the conventional approach of farming [Ismail et al, 2017]. Nutritional management through fertigation is the basic requirement in vertical farming as the plants are grown in inert media. Major and micronutrient management is the major task for successful vertical farming. Sensors are required for precise measurement, control and supply of nutrition to the plants. There is urgent need of detection of NPK, Ca, Mg, EC and pH for fertigation management. These sensors should act automatically and connected to fertigation unit through IoT for close loop system.
Fertilizers and pesticides can exhibit moderate to lethal levels of toxicity in humans. Although they are used in farm-fields to boost agricultural productivity, these chemicals move up through the food chain, which leads to biomagnification. Most of the reported methods for the detection of fertilizer and pesticides in the soil are expensive, have a short shelf life, and are difficult to realize as a device outside laboratories. By combining the complementary expertise of the Indian and the German partners, our project aims to address this unmet challenge by developing an efficient multiplexed device for the detection of nitrate (a major fertilizer-based soil/ground water contaminant in India and Germany) and organophosphates (a class of pesticides) in soil samples. The device will comprise a microfluidic platform integrated with printed electrodes based on analyte-sensitive ink formulations and will facilitate the regular screening of nitrate and organophosphates to monitor the quality of soil samples. Envisioned for commercial marketing, the device will be an important step towards sustainable agriculture, which will significantly improve the livelihood of rural farming communities in the countries and help in safeguarding water resources from pollution. Additionally, through the development of a user-friendly soil testing device in this project, awareness on environmental protection will be enhanced.
The project aims at improving the process water treatment in industries in order to reduce harmful toxicological effects in receiving environments. We seek to recycle process streams and recover resources, and thus improve the techno-economic feasibility of Zero Liquid Discharge plants. One promising technology to address the problems of desalination and dye removal is Capacitive Deionization (CDI). Compared to reverse osmosis, flowCDI can deal with highly concentrated brines and suffers less from organic fouling. Micropollutants, will be removed by a synergetic combination of CDI and Advanced Oxidation Processes. The novel treatment technologies will be scaled-up and piloted in the textile industry. The findings will enable replication and transfer to other key industries. Water quality and treatment efficiency will be monitored by emerging effect-based methods (EBM), which are complementary to chemical target analyses. The advantage of EBM is that they provide a holistic indication of toxicological effects from complex mixtures typical of process waters, which covers unknown oxidation by-products and synergistic effects. A bioassay test battery will be developed and transferred from Germany to India. EfectroH2O targets the United Nations Environment Programme Sustainable Development Goals 6 to “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” by contributing to the reduction of water consumption in water scarce regions such as India.
Green and economic catalytic processes are at the base of long-term sustainable industrial value-chains. At present, however, fossil resources constitute the primary feedstock for the production of fuels and organic chemicals. In this project, a consortium of skilled researchers of academic institutions and industry from India and Germany will work together to convert CO2 with lower olefins generated from renewable sources to value-added intermediates. Key to our approach is using CO2 as oxidant for the epoxidation of lower alkenes generating CO as valuable by-product, and as carboxylation agent for the C-H bond of lower alkenes generating acrylic acid. Within the project, nanoporous catalysts tailored to CO2 conversion will be industrialized, the reactions scaled-up and proven in an industrial environment and the ecologic impact evaluated by life-cycle assessment. The novel value chain gives access to bulk intermediates, where the entire carbon originates from sustainable sources.
The objective of this project is to develop a cost-effective hybrid two-wheeler fulfilling the requirements of reduced CO2 and other emissions and improved fuel economy. IIT Madras, India and RWTH Aachen, Germany will develop and integrate simulation models of the engine and the vehicle along with the electric drive for sizing the important components and will arrive at the suitable topology and control strategies. The hybrid electrical drive control units and the battery management system will be developed by VEMAC GmbH, Germany. TVS Motor Ltd., India will do the design, component procurement and integration on test bed and vehicle. The proposed hybrid control strategies will be experimentally evaluated and fine-tuned in the laboratory in IIT Madras on a special test rig. Integration on the two-wheeler, calibration for performance and evaluation on the test bench and outdoor test track will also be done by TVS Motors. One prototype vehicle will be evaluated in Germany for fine tuning the control logic. Finally, the potential for reduction of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions will be evaluated against a targeted value of 25% in the chassis dynamometer in TVS Motors. The system will also be evaluated for meeting BS VI norms that will come into effect by April 2020 in India.
Through the pyrasol project, simple and robust processing technologies for urban organic waste is intended to combine in a synergetic manner and further develop to improve sanitation and welfare, supply regenerative energy, convert waste into products and reduce the carbon footprint of Smart Cities: an innovative solar sludge and waste drying system using the natural chimney effect followed by a high efficient single chamber pyrolysis process. The aim of the project is to offer an innovative and for smart cities adequate approach to transform urban organic waste into biochar and energy. Thus, optimum process and operation parameters of the solar dryer will be determined and a unique condensing boiler system developed and applied to the pyrolysis process. This is supplemented through a comprehensive evaluation of the value added chain from urban organic waste into biochar and energy and the application of biochar for land reclamation (long-term fertilizer, heavy metal adsorbent, etc.). As this valuable biochar is the only process output, this project contributes to the Zero Waste Approaches of Smart Cities.